


the torrent

by krakenhouse



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Chatwin's Torrent, M/M, Mosaic Timeline (The Magicians: A Life in the Day), POV Eliot Waugh, Poetry, Prose Poem, poetry inspired by the magicians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:29:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27210487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krakenhouse/pseuds/krakenhouse
Summary: Eliot and Quentin take a trip to Chatwin's Torrent to heal Quentin's sprained ankle and Eliot allows his thoughts to wander while sitting on a rock, waiting for him.
Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh
Kudos: 9





	the torrent

**Author's Note:**

> Free-verse poetry inspired by the mosaic timeline of The Magicians. This exists within the universe of a longfic I'm currently in the process of writing that's set in the mosaic timeline, in particular a scene a couple of months into Quentin and Arielle's relationship when Eliot is being particularly pine-y and very oblivious to anyone else's feelings but his own, as per usual.

i want you  
i want you to sink into that water, love  
the noon light makes it so that nothing is hidden  
under it you are bubbling and foaming  
just like that healing water  
the most, the clear mountain spray makes me want to kiss you, to feel that unknowable purity  
steal it right from your lips (not a true theft, if you offered) (please offer)

here i am  
on the moss covered rock,  
you are there submerged in this  
white ambrosia  
this font of youth  
submerged up to your shoulders, you  
turn and face the sun  
yes, you turn and face the sun  
i’ve held on to your sweater, so it doesn’t get wet  
it’s not a futile gesture, not completely  
the spray lays claim to those knitted strands, too,  
eventually  
i curse the old damp thing where it lays,  
limp and residually warm from your freckled shoulders  
it taunts my mind into sweet fantasy 

i allow myself to dream of staying here  
here within the Torrent  
it’s tantalizing, i’m tempted  
eternally noon  
eternally october sun october chill  
your sweater has grown over with moss  
it is one with the rock and so am i  
your lovebird your stone effigy  
i stay here watching you bathe among the hemlocks  
the water has worn away your reticent outer layer  
in this absence of time nothing is hidden  
no puzzle to be solved  
no strawberry locks to be combed  
you, my ancient statue, gift from another life  
cracked and weathered  
over the years the water has healed you, sweetheart  
you are made of it, this jade green foam  
the cold water in my mind’s eye 

but instead  
instead, your sweater is mostly dry  
you clamber up over the rocks  
newly healed skin beckoning to me (i don't reach out to you, i don't reach, i won't reach)

i wish we could stay  
live out our days dousing each other in blue green spray  
but i am sitting here  
as old as i have ever been and as young as i will ever be  
clothed in your mossy sweater  
and you are next to nothing  
air particles running up against each other in the shape of a human  
the mirage of you beckons to me  
as i drown myself  
sitting on this stone  
you are shaped, solidly, like a lover in my eyes


End file.
